


Debating Logic

by Lil_Lycanthropy



Series: The Human!Sides College AU Verse by firesfly [2]
Category: Thomas Sanders
Genre: College AU, Gen, debate, there's not much else to tag i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 09:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11711499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lil_Lycanthropy/pseuds/Lil_Lycanthropy
Summary: A debate between Logan and Virgil on the accuracy of negative thinking.Part of theThe Human!Sides College AU Versebyfiresfly





	Debating Logic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [princelogical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/princelogical/gifts).



> The is for the fic [Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10971978) by [firesfly](http://archiveofourown.org/users/firesfly/pseuds/firesfly). You should totally check out their whole [Human!Sides College AU](http://archiveofourown.org/series/721698) series.

_“Would you like to debate with me, Virgil?” Logan asked. The words were spoken in a fluid way—almost as if the guy was used to speaking so formally._

_“Sure,” Virgil said._

_Logan sat down and opened up a book and scooted it over to Virgil, who crouched down. Patton sat down as well. “You may pick your stance. I will take the opposing position. Patton may moderate. Is that all right?”_

_Virgil picked up the book, reading the heading_ **_Negative Thinking: how accurate is it?_ ** _Virgil smirked. “Perfect.”_

_He was ready._

* * *

 

Patton looked thoroughly excited about his role. Of course, Patton looked thoroughly excited about everything.

“Did you choose your side?” Logan asked, shuffling around some papers with neat little notes written across them.

“Yeah. I’m gonna say yes, it’s accurate.”

“Okay, so I will be saying it is not. That works out fine. Patton, you begin. Use the flashcards.”

Patton took the flashcards from Logan, along with his phone to use the timer app, and using his best “moderator” voice, he began. “I’m making up an intro, though,” he muttered, eyes skimming over the cards. “Ladies and gentlemen—well, gentlemen. Prepare for an amazing debate! Our topic for tonight—negative thinking! Is it really accurate? On the ‘yes’ side is our very own vigilant Virgil, who I know will do fantastic!” Virgil scoffed, but Patton ignored him. “On the ‘no’ side, we have logical Logan, who I also know will do a great job!” Logan looked rather enthusiastic at that. “This debate’ll be in three sections, with each side having a minute to talk. I’ll be saying when time is up. For the first part, one of you has to make your opening statement, and the other argues against it. Virgil is first up—take it away, kiddo!”

Virgil huffed a bit at the nickname, but nevertheless, he started his unprepared tirade. 

“Negative thinking? Pretty accurate. Even though it’s super cynical, it’s still based on reality—the thoughts don’t come from nowhere. So it’s gonna be at least a little bit true. It just takes already-existing thoughts and situations, combines them, then makes the important details known. Unfortunately, it’s usually the bad stuff that matters most. Even though some negative thoughts can become true—what are they called?” Virgil panicked a bit as he tried to think of the word, time ticking down in his head. 

Fortunately, Logan piped up at his distress. “Self-fulfilling prophecies?” 

“Yeah, that’s the one. Doesn’t that mean those negative thoughts were accurate? Not only are they usually realistic, but they can be helpful, too. Perky people never seem prepared when things finally do go wrong. Negative thinking is just a weird form of, I don’t know, mental self-defense? Even if it wasn’t 100% accurate, you can still learn from it because of the preparation that it gave you. Speaking of the whole accuracy thing, it’s always a matter of the person’s perception. Nothing with the brain can be defined as completely ‘accurate’ or ‘inaccurate’. If a pessimistic person thinks something went bad, then that thing will always be something bad in their mind. Once again, their negativity equals accuracy. In short, negative thinking just tells it as it is.”

“That’s time! Logan, your rebuttal?”

If Patton looked delighted with Virgil’s participation, Logan looked positively ecstatic. Even though they had only met a few minutes ago, Virgil got the impression that Logan wasn’t one to show his emotions. Even now, his face was settled on a smirk, and his body language as stiffly formal as ever. But his eyes had a fire that one only ever sees in that of a pure genius taking delight in mental challenges—such as debates.

“Both overly negative and positive thinking are inaccurate, because they are emotionally charged and cause what’s known as cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are when an individual perceives things as differently than how they are. With negative thinking, reality is bent to suit the needs of the individual in the worst possible way. This kind of thinking is automatically unreliable because the situation is no longer being looked at objectively.” He shuffled around some of the papers on his lap for a moment before continuing. 

“The defeatist point-of-view leads people to focus on minor details rather than the ‘big picture’, and that can be detrimental to a person’s physical, mental, and emotional health. While the anxiety caused by negative thinking can lead to better performance due to fear of failure, and helps to better equip somebody in the event of things going wrong, it still influences the outcome of situations and people’s reactions in a damaging way. But whether negativity is helpful is inconsequential to the debate, so I will move on. The point is that with pessimism, reality is bent—there’s no escaping that; it’s a fact. By the definition of ‘accurate’, that means negative thinking is indeed the opposite; it’s inaccurate.”

Logan settled back, clearly pleased with himself. Virgil was feeling a little overwhelmed, both at Logan’s obvious preparedness and the fact that he still had to come up with another argument himself.

Mercifully, Patton saved Virgil from being completely stuck. “Ok, for this next round, you’ll have to use specific examples. Verge—can I call you Verge?”

“Whatever.”

“You’re up!”

“Um, okay. There’s a lot of times negative thinking is true. Like, if you’re texting someone and they stop replying, and your brain tells you it’s because they hate you, the likelihood of that being accurate is pretty high. I mean, why else would they stop? It’s not like they just randomly decided you weren’t worth their time—it was probably because of a long-standing hatred. In that case, negative thinking would be right.”

“I have a rebuttal,” Logan said, raising his hand.

“No, wait your turn,” Patton said, turning to stare back at Virgil.

Shrinking a bit into himself, Virgil carried on. “Okay, if you don’t like that example, what about when you’re, um...trying to talk with someone! You’re interacting, things are going fine, and then you mess up—big time. Like if you’re going to a movie, and they say, ‘Have a great movie,’ and you reply, ‘you too.’ Then the negative thinking will have said you completely blew it, and it would be true! See, even if negative thinking is telling you the worst, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

“I have another rebuttal,” Logan said, but Patton shushed him.

Virgil glanced over at Patton’s phone, and still had about fifteen seconds left. He needed to think of another example, now. His breathing sped up a bit as he tried to get back on track; not enough to cause alarm, but enough that words were becoming a bit difficult.

“Okay, well, um, another time it’s right a lot is with things like...public speaking. If you make even one mistake during that, people notice and bring it up. You know, you stutter, or you mess up the words. Even if you did an otherwise okay speech or whatever, you can’t deny that you still messed up. Negative thinking will tell you, ‘hey, you messed up that whole thing,’ and once again, it’s right.”

“Alright, nice job! Logan, now you can say your rebuttals.”

Logan adjusted his necktie (something Virgil couldn’t quite believe he was actually wearing), and began.

“Since Virgil has already given his examples, I will argue against his own rather than create new ones.” 

Virgil rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Now, first Virgil said that if someone who was texting you stops with no explanation, it means they hate you. This is a form of negative cognitive distortion known as ‘inference observation confusion’.”

“What?” Virgil stammered.

Squinting a bit at the interruption, Logan nonetheless tried to explain. “It’s commonly known as jumping to conclusions. It’s when someone pieces together what little information they do have to form a negative image. The problem is that they do not have all the information, so they’re likely to exaggerate the outcome. In this case, the person could have stopped texting for any number of reasons—their battery could’ve died, an emergency could’ve turned up, or they got busy or distracted.” 

“Oh, so thoughts telling you an emergency showed up is somehow _not_ negative thinking? What if they died? That’s also plausible. It is also technically an emergency. That still makes the negative thoughts accurate.” Virgil looked tense as he spoke.

“I waited my turn; I hope you do the same,” Logan admonished. Virgil deflated a little, but clenched his jaw.

“Now, since you interrupted, I get more time. Anyway, it’s saying it’s a possibility rather than a definitive answer, whereas negative thinking tries to say that the bad things are the only possible outcome. As for the other examples, you use two other types of cognitive distortions—magnification and mental filtering. In the case of the movie, you would be only focusing on the one thing that went wrong, whereas the rest was a fairly successful interaction. It’s similar to mental filtering from the presentation scenario—filtering out all the good things in favour of the one or two bad things. Even if you did make a mistake, it’s almost never as bad as negative thinking would have you believe.”

He settled back down, preparing for the next section. Virgil still looked agitated, but Logan ignored it. 

“Okay, for the last bit, all you have to do is give your closing statements,” Patton said, trying to place a comforting hand on Virgil’s knee. 

Mistake. Virgil ripped his leg away, almost knocking over Patton.

Words began tumbling out of his mouth. “Negative thinking can be bad, but it’s also right. A lot. Things are terrible, and the negative part focuses on that. That doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

“If it’s only focusing on one aspect of reality, then doesn’t that make it biased, and therefore inaccurate?”

Then Virgil actually _hissed_ at him.

“Excuse me? What the heck was that?”

“Sorry, it’s what happens when I reach my limit of stupid. This is stupid, you’re stupid, I’m stupid, I’m out.”

Patton looked upset, eyes wide as he tried to mitigate the situation. “But I thought you were having fun? If we were stressing you out, kiddo, you could’ve said so.”

The turn of events frustrated Logan to no end. It was supposed to be a simple debate to help him prepare for his in-class one! “He’s having a tantrum; I don’t debate with tantrum-throwers.”

“Yeah, well you can shut up!” Virgil almost shouted. He was hunched over, but it was less like a depressed ball of doubt, and more like the way a snake coils as it strikes.

“Savage!”

The two immediately became confused. “Why are you complimenting him?” Patton asked.

“I wasn’t; I was calling him vicious, hostile, and uncivilized. In what way is it a complim—oh, is it one of those slang terms?”

Both nodded, with Patton saying a small, “yeah, bud,” under his breath.

“Well, you know what I mean.”

Virgil exhaled with a groan and stood up. “I don’t need to take this,” he said, and stormed out of the room.

* * *

 

Some time later, there was a knock at the door. Patton and Logan exchanged a glance, then Patton went up and got the door.

Virgil was standing there, looking almost pitiful. His makeup was smudged, he was exceptionally pale, and his hands were jammed as far as they could in his hoodie. “Hi. Can I..come in?”

“Yeah, of course!” Patton said with a smile as he ushered him in.

Virgil collapsed on the floor across from Logan. Logan looked up from his laptop and set it aside.

“Listen, I know that my first impression was less than stellar, and you guys probably think I’m a huge jerk. I’m sorry I ruined the debate for you.”  


Logan hummed. “You didn’t ruin it—”

“I hissed at you!”

“Yes, well, I admit it was a very... _unusual_ debate tactic. But you still had points, you backed them up with your own reasoning, and you thought remarkably well on your feet; I know you weren’t prepared in any way. But I don’t think you’re a jerk or anything; quite the contrary. It was refreshing to debate with someone who wasn’t Patton for once.” Logan gave a placating smile, and Patton let out a little noise of indignation.

Virgil let out his own, albeit tentative, smile. “I thought you hated me.”

“No, of course not. I believe you were...jumping to a conclusion?”

Virgil chuckled. “Yeah. Something like that.”

“Then would you say that your negative thinking was, in this case, incorrect?”

“Yeah, I guess?”

Logan pumped his fist in the air. 

“I win!”

Both Virgil and Patton rolled their eyes, but they weren’t truly upset. Why would they be? 

They were already friends.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at [lil-lycanthropy](http://lil-lycanthropy.tumblr.com/) and I just learned how to insert links


End file.
